Nakanishi Kotaro, Nureki Osamu
Department of Biological Information, Graduate School of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Kanagawa, Japan.
Mol Cells. 2005 Apr 30;19(2):157-66.
Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a key molecule to decode the genetic information on mRNA to amino aicds (protein), in a ribosome. For tRNA to fulfill its adopter function, tRNA should be processed into the standard length, and be post-transcriptionally modified. This modification step is essential for the tRNA to maintain the canonical L-shaped structure, which is required for the decoding function of tRNA. Otherwise, it has recently been proposed that modification procedure itself contributes to the RNA (re)folding, where the modification enzymes function as a kind of RNA chaperones. Recent genome analyses and post-genome (proteomics and transcriptomics) analyses have identified genes involved in the tRNA processings and modifications. Furthermore, post-genomic structural analysis has elucidated the structural basis for the tRNA maturation mechanism. In this paper, the recent progress of the structural biology of the tRNA processing and modification is reviewed.
转运RNA（tRNA）是一种关键分子，它能在核糖体中将信使核糖核酸（mRNA）上的遗传信息解码为氨基酸（蛋白质）。为了使tRNA发挥其衔接子功能，tRNA需要被加工成标准长度，并进行转录后修饰。这一修饰步骤对于tRNA维持其经典的L形结构至关重要，而这种结构是tRNA解码功能所必需的。否则，最近有人提出修饰过程本身有助于RNA的（重新）折叠，其中修饰酶起着一种RNA伴侣的作用。最近的基因组分析和后基因组（蛋白质组学和转录组学）分析已经鉴定出参与tRNA加工和修饰的基因。此外，后基因组结构分析阐明了tRNA成熟机制的结构基础。本文综述了tRNA加工和修饰结构生物学的最新进展。
